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Ahh, the good old 60s. Free love, drugs, and a whole shit load of important events. Man landing on the moon, JFK assassination, RFK assassination, MLK, Jr. assassination, Vietnam, Woodstock, Bay of Pigs, and of course the Cuban Missile Crisis. That
last item there is what this Roger Donaldson (Dante's
Peak) directed film is all about. It
begins with the U2 spy plane flyovers of communist Cuba, which discovered the
missile sites. Soon the President of the United States and all his men have one
hell of a political hot potato on their hands. Thirteen Days is filmed from the
perspective of Kenny O’Donnell (Kevin Costner, Message
in a Bottle), who is an advisor to President Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood from Rules
of Engagement). So now the President, with the help of his advisors must
figure out what to do about these Soviet intermediate range missiles in Cuba
that could hit just about every US city in the matter of minutes once they
become operational. Some in the government want to bomb the hell out of Cuba,
others want to invade Cuba, and still others want to find a diplomatic solution.
Now we all know that a diplomatic solution was found, so there is little
suspense there, but for those who don’t have a detailed history on the whole
crisis then will take away some valuable knowledge. Thirteen
Days is not a documentary, so you know not all the details are perfect. However
you do get a good sense of what happened behind the scenes of an important event
in US history. You get to learn how many ways the President was being pulled,
and how the crisis really ended. But the filmmakers should have done a better
job of explaining the importance of using the term ‘quarantine’ over
‘embargo’ instead of merely implying the reasoning behind it. Quickly, other
actors were Shawn Driscoll, Janet Coleman, Bruce Thomas, Steven Culp, Henry
Strozier, Michael Fairman, and Kevin Conway (Mercury
Rising).
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:07 AM Click Here to get back into frames.
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